U.S. stock futures nose higher after sixth straight gain for S&P 500

What’s driving market

The S&P 500 has enjoyed its longest streak of gains since Nov. 2021 with its sixth rise in succession, as the Nasdaq reached its highest level since March 2022.

The gains came after a second consecutive elevated reading of initial jobless claims.

“While the sum of the U.S. economic numbers overnight was mixed and did little to provide absolute clarity on the outlook for interest rates, the real story was the jobless claims number which continued to tick higher, suggesting a softening job market and a less hawkish Fed. Hence it took under 24 hours for traders to accord more weight to economic data, where jobs and inflation trends should provide the definitive steer to July’s FOMC meeting rather than the Fed guidance,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner for SPI Asset Management.

There are two Fed speaker on the docket, Gov. Christopher Waller and Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin, along with consumer sentiment data.

Global strategists at Citi say the 15% gain for the S&P 500 being led by a big megacap tech companies aren’t a reason to be pessimistic. “Ultimately, bad breadth alone is not a reason to sell the market. In fact, stocks are usually higher 12 months after leadership narrows,” the strategists said.

The dollar
USDJPY,
+0.48%
reached a seven-month high vs. the Japanese yen after the Bank of Japan made no change to its interest-rate policy. Bitcoin
BTCUSD,
+0.58%
was trading above $25,000 as BlackRock filed for approval for a listed daily bitcoin fund.

The rally after Chinese rate cuts continued to boost the Hang Seng
HSI,
+1.07%
which has now fully recovered its losses in May.